This is the difference between Weizen and white beer

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: the difference between Weizen and white beer.

Have you ever stood in the supermarket in front of the shelf with specialty beers, wondering if Weizen is just German white beer and once home not being able to pinpoint the difference? That sounds familiar. We’d love to tell you more about it.

I don't often drink beer anymore, but because you haven't truly experienced Berlin without wandering through the parks and streets with a Weizen in your hand from the späti, I became a fan of this beer back then. And why is that different from a white beer on a terrace or better yet: on the terrace of the brewery itself? We looked it up.

Beer diploma
A great source of info is Bierista, the platform for recognized beer knowledge. You can even take a beer course there. Not a bad idea, now that beer (even from a can!) is served with dishes in the most iconic restaurants.You can find everything about beers here and that’s how we also brushed up our knowledge.

Nice white is not white
First funny fact: ‘white’ has nothing to do with color in white beer and certainly not in Weizen (also known as weisse or weissbier). Weizen means wheat and weit is also an old type of wheat. ‘Weit’ became ‘white’ and the names for the pale yellow white beer and the orange to dark yellow Weizen are derived from the grain.

To malt or not to malt
The technical story is that white beer is brewed with barley malt and unmalted wheat, and Weizen with barley malt and wheat malt. But also very characteristic is the difference in fermentation. In white beer, this often happens with a so-called Belgian white beer yeast that makes it so specifically refreshing (and makes you think you can keep drinking it endlessly because of ‘nice and fresh’), and Weizen with special wheat yeast that gives it fruity sweet aromas. Do you know what the experts taste in it? Banana foam! Look, we can totally get into that...

Spicy stuff
In white beer, flavorings can be added that make it so characteristic; coriander and orange peel for example. Not bad at all, we love spices. Whether you throw them in chhonk for the soup or in our white beer: all welcome. In Weizen, which is brewed according to the strict German Reinheitsgebot, no herbs or spices may be added. However, variations can be made with the roasting of the malts or filtering, resulting in darker or crystal clear variants.

Germany-Belgium: 1-1
Weizen is back in the beer scene after a dip in the middle of the last century, both nationally (good for ten percent of German beer consumption) and internationally. Belgian white beer also faced a setback when the last Hoegaarden brewery closed its doors around the 1950s. Salvation came a few years later when beer icon Pierre Celis restarted production and made white beer a great success again.

So the next time you stand in front of the shelf hesitating, listen to the little voice in your head and take both. Cheers!